If this actually works, it would be incredible for Sony. I would hate the idea of my game unintentionally being read as illegal, but since I don't download illegally, as long as it doesn't affect me, more power to them.

There are a number of ways it could go wrong, but hardware slowdown is one I'm sure they'll be able to address. Like I mentioned, if it works well, okay then. However, if they can't successfully implement it on the PS4, then it's a problem.

Moving parts wear out in very predictable ways. All they have to do is track for the age of the blu-ray drive, and they can probably develop some function of legitimate slowdown, vs the slowdown caused by pirated disks.

@r21 below...

Welcome to the x86 world, where every caveat and detail about the cpu is known by hackers around the world. Now that the PS4 is based on that, I expect it to have a piracy problem comparable to what the xbox 360 has...

No, guys, I want to explain what the article creator didn't understand. It's looking for load times faster than they should be. For example Ni No Kuni had a bunch of people complain it crashed. But it was revealed that only downloaded copies of the disk version loaded a certain element too fast causing a memory conflict and crash. The Digital Download version was altered to not do this. So again there not looking for files that load too slow, there looking for files that load too fast.

It's sad that so much time and resources are needed to try and combat piracy. Not sad that they are doing it but sad that they pretty much have to.

With the internet being such a public place and a wealth of information it's easy to see why they have to try and take drastic measures to stop piracy. Once the key is out there it becomes very hard to lock the door again.

Just imagine it's your game, that you've spent 2-3 years of your life working on and some snot nosed little punk is enjoying the f-out-of-it and you get nothing for it. Used games is one thing but on this issue Sony should do everything in their power to prevent.

Instead of searching for ways to stop piracy, they should be giving people incentives to not pirate. As Gabe Newell said, you need to offer people something that is better than free. That's how you stop piracy.

I think the point is that with BD games when people would pirate them, at least with ps3, most people would run custom firmware that would allow them to store the entire game on the HD, which case in point allows for faster loading times. this new software would allow the hardware to detect a program loading too fast thereby distigiushing it as a pirated program.

The only problem I have with fighting piracy is that the ones that are actually paying for everything are the ones that really pay the price for a few douchebags that want to play for free.

And don't forget that just because a company patents something doesnt mean it will ever see the light of day.

Cool tech but Sony hasn't needed it this gen on ps3 I still haven't heard of anyone pirating games on the ps3 even though it has been cracked Let alone not many people going to go out of their way to download 25+ of gigs to play a game

PS3 is cracked wide open now. Any game is playable and while it's not as rampant as 360 piracy that's only because it took longer to do it properly.

And no you don't need an ancient FW at all, not anymore! And as for online, that is obviously a choice pirates don't mind making (same as multiplayer PC games).

As someone said above, with the new architecture, hacking should be technically simpler but Sony may have some "imaginative" safeguards in place that could be tricky to bypass.

So long as they allow used games/sale of used games they shouldn't suffer from piracy in any meaningful financial way (none of the consoles do, even with Piracy the games industry makes a massive amount of cash thanks to high prices - but sales are high partly because people feel they are buying a game that they own, they can sell on half price, or more, towards their next game, I have always done this as it funds my 'habit' but if they stamp out used games, then I can't justify the high prices of games anymore and nor can they.

If there is no piracy and no used games then game prices MUST be halved, as those things were always used as 'excuses' for the ridiculously high prices of videogames.

Like the music industry, their greed will bite them in the ass if they push their luck next gen.

I think the best solution for them is to reduce the price of video games especially the ones downloaded digitally. I don't understand why a lot of games are marked at 60$ to 65$ with tax. I dont see anyone trying to pirate angry birds! Yea sure they work 2 to 3 years to make a video game but what about movies that come out they take about the same amount of time to make too and they go for about 20 to 30 dollars. I could name loads of video games this past generation that were not worth 60 dollars

The chances of this thing working as expected (ie: not blocking legitimate users) are about the same as the infamous Sony BMG Rootkit malware working without locking up users drives: http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

Oh man that would be great since i enjoy playing snes and n64 games a lot on my pc and then i could on my ps4 but then again i would be happier if the thing isnt hack at all just like how my ps3 is and im sure sony has something up their sleeve to prevent this from happening

what sony is doing is asking hackers to actually hack the PS4 since most of hackers always seek a challenge to build up their name, like YinFanLu did with the PSVita.

and now with the PS4 having a PC-like structure it will be even easier, have you noticed how many times DRM has failed on the PC? it always does.

@Qrphe

emulation is not easy at all, and demands lots of coding and power, example of this is PCSX2, you need a pretty decent computer to be able to play some games from the PS2 at full speed. another example would be the N64 emulator on the PSP after for like 5 years it is still in development!!!

what sony should had done if they really wanted to stop piracy a bit, would be for them to make a completely proprietary struture.....

I'd rather piracy to stay far far away from the PS4 as long as possible. Preferably for six years or more.

Hmmm... if rfid chips aren't for used software then what could they be for? Could it be that BC's presence would casts unknown vulnerabilities if included? Did Sony start over with a clean slate on the PS4?

Hopefully those jangly "keys" are buried in the earth's core this time around. lol

This makes sense because the ps4 is so similar to PC architecture, it may be cracked relatively easy compared to the cell. One patent I hope they never use is blocking used games. If they implement it, Microsoft may be quick to announce they won't carry the feature and divert sales from Sony. That may be a positive however, as it would force Sony to drop the terrible feature.

Think back a couple years ago... April 2011 to be exact, that ring a bell. Following that, a patent was filed in August 2011. When someone busts your house down sometimes irrational is all you can think. "Sigh"... hindsight is 20/20.

Now fast forward to to 2013

Either Sony has those discs/lasers/disks rendered bulletproof or they may as well go about strangling themselves. I'd like to think Sony has thoroughly tested this patent in everyday, random and even interrupted use. Hopefully Sony sees reason and decides to have it heavily amended.